Performance: ****½ Recording: **** ‘This disc is a worthy successor to the conductor's previous Rachmaninov recordings and admirers of those need not hesitate to add this one to their libraries.’ HR Audio.net

Performance: **** Recording: **** ‘The LSO plays, as always, splendidly for Valery Gergiev. The general excellence and detail of their performance is remarkable.’ BBC Music Magazine

Concert Reviews

‘Full blooded and engrossing… the performance revealed the genius of this strange, haunted piece [Rachmaninov Symphony No 1].’The Telegraph

‘Rachmaninov surely dreamt of a performance such as this. [Balakirev’s Tamara] deserves more exposure.’Seen and Heard International

‘This music [Rachmaninov] would appear to form part of Gergiev’s cardiovascular system, the LSO playing throughout at its considerable best. [Balakirev’s Tamara] drew from Gergiev and the LSO a performance of distinction.’Classical Source

‘This is music Gergiev clearly believes in and that translated itself to his players… Here was Gergiev at his best.’Bachtrack

'Again, Gergiev returns to the luxuriant character of the score. The characterisation of intention are unparalleled in discography' Classica

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Valery Gergiev, London Symphony Orchestra

Rachmaninov’s First Symphony has a somewhat checkered history, in no small part due to a quite possibly drunk Glazunov conducting the first performance. Despite any initial unwelcome, it is now seen as a vibrant depiction of Russian civilisation and culture, recognised for its fluid, longing and expressive features. The English composer and academic Robert Simpson calling it ‘a powerful work in its own right…convinced, individual, finely constructed, and achieving a genuinely tragic and heroic expression’.

Balakirev was a member of Russia’s ‘Mighty Handful’, and Tamara is widely considered his greatest work. Described by The Telegraph as ‘a musical dream’ it is a sensuous and melodic work influenced by exotic and oriental culture, popular in the music of nineteenth century Russia.